It's just evolution. There are actually more blogs now than there were back in the day, but the content is so narrow that most people don't care. Good general (multi- topic) blogs are harder to keep up, especially in the thinker not linker type.
Now that "The Corner" allows comments, there's probably just too much competitioin.
Do you ever read Pandagon? It's not as good at BitchPhD, but it's the best substitute I've found. I also like Jill's articles at Feministe, but I may be biased because Jill is a lawyer so her posts are frequently about feminism and the law.
And I was so excited when M. LeBlanc started blogging at Tiger Beatdown but she hasn't posted since July.
Maybe they should market to the over 50 hook up crowd
Bitch herself has been essentially moribund as a blogger for a couple of years now. The blog enjoyed a little resurgence with the introduction of new blood, but even then the writing had been on the wall for a while. Had it moments, of course. Taddy should have his own space.
OK, that's funny - I clicked over here for the first time in 7+ months (excepting that one thread about my friend with the crazy custody thing) expressly because BPhD shutting down made me wistful for this place.
Hello again, imaginary friends.
Welcome back. I knew you couldn't leave.
Hiya JRoth. Good to see you and I hope things are good for you & yours.
I go to 11. I also wonder where my personal info went. F FF.
Jr0th! We miss you! Take us with you next time you leave!
(Just a joke, of course, ol' buddy, ol' pal!)
I've been busy working during the day and out and about without internet access, but I really missed you JRoth.
JRoth, Could you shoot me an e-mail so that I'll know how to get in touch with you if I ever make it to Pittsburgh.
27: Oh, yeah. I screwed up the format. Go me.
||Wtf is it with the crazy weather here this fall? Massive storm, then tornadoes, now a huge hail-thuderstorm>|
JRoth! = JRoth * JRot * JRo * JR * J = (J^5)(R^4)(o^3)(t^2)h
29: I KNOW!!!! My plane landed like 2 minutes before the insane lightning began.
The upside to the end of the Bitch PhD blog is that maybe they'll have more time to come over here and comment.
29: Ah, you guys up north must have gotten it, then. We had this big storm warning and then nothing happened. Gorgeous soft warm night that doesn't feel October-ish at all, except for the moon.
So I went out grocery shopping and then did possibly the most SWPL activity of my life to date: Drove to the post office to mail my toothbrush for recycling. (To be fair, I had other items to mail.)
What company or organization offers the toothbrush-recycling service?
mail my toothbrush for recycling
What's that, now? Is there something I don't know about toothbrushes?
Thanks, everybody. I don't really intend to stay, but while I'm here:
All is well. I'm busy as shit, and maybe returning to solvency (although we wouldn't be without the food stamps). AB's book* should be coming out in the spring. Kai (27 mos.) is this amazing kid who sings to himself constantly and may be potty trained in the near future, and Iris' 1st grade teacher told us at today's conference that she's "meticulous" and "insightful." Uh huh.
She was also a little shit at dinner, making a nasty face and folding her arms about eating (non-Brussels sprout-grade) food for the second time in a week. Boom, off to bed, lots of screaming, then she comes down an hour later and announces a nightmare about a fire-breathing dragon attacking her. Are kids' dreams always so transparent?
* Can't discretely say anything except that the target audience is both specialized (planning history) and general (Pittsburgh neighborhood history). UPitt Press.
While Witt mulls this over (if she's even around), a more general question: I've inherited, so to speak, a number of things from my mom that I can't quite figure out what to do with. She was an R.N., so maybe that explains why she'd accumulated something like 15 thermometers (old fashioned mercury kind), and like 20 pairs of tweezers, and a good 15 or 20 toothbrushes (old-fashioned, plain old straight ones, still in sealed plastic wrappers). Other things like that.
I should just freecycle them? The thermometers I'm a little concerned about. I'd sort of like to pass them on to a free health clinic or something. The tweezers are funny, all different shapes and sizes, and who the hell wants those (freecycle there).
I'm answering my own questions, I suppose.
Sorry to step on your comment, JRoth. I do wish you'd stay. Thanks for the updates. Is Iris still at Waldorf?
You monsters don't recycle your toothbrushes? Next you'll be telling me you just throw your dental floss in the trash.
I don't even recycle my toilet paper.
34, 35: You guys are adorable. I thought for sure I'd get mocked unmercifully. The company is Preserve; they brag that their toothbrushes are made from recycled yogurt cups. Heaven only knows what they make the toothbrushes themselves into. But never let it be said that I did not do my part to waste fossil fuels mailing the thing back to Massachusetts!
37: I'd give the toothbrushes to whatever elder-care agency or homeless shelter is handy.
For liability reasons I'd imagine many health clinics wouldn't be able to use the thermometers. I imagine that the person who might most want them is a film or theater prop person. You might want to give your local film office a call. I'm reminded of a story I read once about the elderly nurse who taught Juliette Binoche how to use the old-fashioned syringe in The English Patient.
On a related note, someone asked me what to do with Nazi items her father had brought home from WWII. I forewarned her about eBay's rules and the crazy subset of reenactors, and recommended she contact some local museums and/or professors to get an idea of whether the items were rare or run-of-the-mill. Turned out she just wanted to know how much they were worth. Ick.
40: Au contraire. I've been re-purposing my used dental floss as thread, which I've used to sew this year's Halloween costume. I'm going as the opera singer, Plaquecido Domingo.
42.last: Do they have my hat? That was a nice hat.
Sigh. Nobody will see my attempt to threadjack the moribind Risk Aversion thread. It just seemed the most appropriate one to put my quasi-post deep inside.
Maybe I will have to e-mail heebie or Stanley to ask them to post it before the blog dies forever.
The tweezers are funny, all different shapes and sizes, and who the hell wants those (freecycle there).
Model-airplane assemblers! Ship-in-a-bottle enthusiasts! Hobbyists of all kinds! My niece who is obsessed with Band-Aids and related!
Yeah, freecycle sounds good.
(Hi JRoth. Yay you, yay AB, and yay food stamps. Just think, maybe Kai and Iris will be on billboards when they grow up, just like President Obama.)
For liability reasons I'd imagine many health clinics wouldn't be able to use the thermometers.
That hadn't occurred to me. I'd assumed that they could be sterilized and tested for accuracy; I'm not sure what the liability problem would be beyond that. Of course they're probably not that expensive to just buy new, but still, every penny counts in some places. Valuable tools for public health! Boo.
46: I saw it but I'm not talking about anything meaningful right now. I'll try to come back to it, promise!
target audience is both specialized (planning history) and general (Pittsburgh neighborhood history).
If that is talking about "Hazelwood: It used to not suck," then I already have it on my Amazon wish list.
The liabiity is the mercury. Many countries and I believe some US states have banned the old-fashioned mercury thermometers. Detailed guidance for manufacturers from the Northeast Waste Management Officials' Association.
46: It's too late for me to say anything about it, but it's a worthwhile topic: I say ask a front-pager to put it on tap as a guest post.
someone asked me what to do with Nazi items her father had brought home from WWII.
Give them to a GOP candidate?
(Bg, I can't say that the description rings true for me. If I'm sexist, it's probably in the other direction, pushing back harder against women in authority under the assumption that they're used to dealing with it and aren't as likely to be touchy about criticism as men are. Although I really hope I'm not that unjust.)
51: Ah, okay. Thanks. It's either a prop company, as you suggest, or my doctor's office -- I've already asked them, and they've agreed to receive them for proper medical waste disposal. I'd just thought that someone might need and want them.
I think Brazilian gold miners need mercury. If there is enough, you could sent it to them.
But if all the blogs dry up what will I do when I'm drunk in my office?
Catching up on the thread:
JRoth! I've missed your commenting.
I bought one of those recyclable toothbrushes recently but haven't finished with it yet to try out the recycling part.
There's weird whole-sky lightning shit going on here but only a few drops of rain.
On a related note, someone asked me what to do with Nazi items her father had brought home from WWII.
Tell her to start wearing them under a shirt when she goes out.
I think I'm mostly okay to drive home but on the way to my office from dinner I saw police officers making some elderly dude try to walk in a straight line, and one of my dinner companions made us all wait so he could watch and laugh. So now I'm all like "what if they pull me over and I'm barely tipsy but I can't quite walk in a straight line and and and?"
On second thought, I'm still a bit drunk.
There's weird whole-sky lightning shit going on here but only a few drops of rain.
Same here.
On second thought, I'm still a bit drunk.
And one of your dinner companions is an asshole.
Hey essear, I was over in your neck of the woods the other day. Odd place.
64: Yeah, it's pretty odd. Rarely are college towns so lacking in places that are affordable to non-rich college students. (Tonight's dinner for 10 people: about $600.) There is a fairly nice bookstore, though (Labyrinth). I'm rarely actually in the downtown-ish part of town; I live in a suburb across Route 1 and my office is in the southern part of campus. I'm probably in New York more often than I'm on Nas/sau Street. (Actually I was up at your school for most of the last two weeks, but maybe a different campus than you're in; I was in Pisca/taway.)
60: Dino comics have always underwhelmed me, but that's pretty awesome - and would be a real conundrum.
We have one old mercury thermometer that we treat with kid gloves, only used when someone is clearly sick. No confidence in any of the newer ones.
Rarely are college towns so lacking in places that are affordable to non-rich college students.
Yeah, I found it really striking that it really looked nothing like a college town, and if there hadn't been a college campus right there there wouldn't have been any clue that it was one.
Actually I was up at your school for most of the last two weeks, but maybe a different campus than you're in
Yeah, my school is in downtown New Brunswick (technically part of the College Avenue Campus, but not physically part of the actual campus). I rarely get over to any of the other campuses.
Oral readings. We don't trust those either.
Hella big t-storm just rolled in here. Pretty impressive for mid-October, although the last 2 days were not very Octobery.
parsi, Iris is in public school, a financial decision as much as anything. However, Kai is now in "Little Friends," Waldorf's 18-48 mo. program, which is his first peer socialization (not a single one of our friends has a kid within a year of Kai's age). Going quite well, largely due to the sandbox, which is one of his passions.
67: Well, I have some others if you want one as a backup. I tend to favor them as well. They come in a little plastic tube for protection, so you're not exactly juggling with the thing.
I'm off to bed -- 'night all.
71.2: Ah, yeah, it occurred to me after I asked that the cost might be prohibitive by now. I have a soft spot for early Waldorf education -- I lived for 5 years with a Waldorf kindergarten teacher, and the bread-baking and hand-work and so on seemed wonderful for the kids.
72: Their mortality usually came during the shaking down process. As a kid I'd collect the mercury and feed it to the goldfish.
I am pleased to see JRoth. Back when I was just a lurker he was my favorite commenter. (Now that I comment, I don't have favorites anymore, you see.)
(Well, I have to confess that I used to confuse JP and JRoth frequently, so together they were actually my favorites.)
We live a few miles away - I can practically see his house from here* - so that's understandable.
I was going to say that I'm flattered, but now I'm only half-flattered.
* Surprisingly literally true. In fact, there's a modest [Daniel Burnham] skyscraper a couple blocks from here, and I bet I could see his house from its roof.
||
I'm about ready to break down and cry. I was up from 2:30 - 5 am yesterday night with crazy insomnia, and exhausted all day, and I crashed about 10 pm tonight, and woke up about 30 minutes ago with a really intense headache. Headache won't go away, can't sleep, scared I'm going to be awake for hours and doubly unable to function tomorrow, etc, etc, etc.
Also I remember reading that you're specifically not supposed to get in front of the computer if you have insomnia because the backlighting will tell your brain it's morning and blah blah blah. And now I'm doing that, too. Everything is terrible.
|>
Ugh, poor Heebie. Did you take anything for the headache? (Tylenol, a bunch of water?)
I did, both. Also I'm running totally hot, so I'm eating ice cubes, which is helping. Except I just filled up the ice cube trays and when I put them in the freezer, I aligned them the wrong way. Our ice cube trays have this property that they'll stack in one orientation with room for cubes, and nestle in the opposite orientation, with no room for cubes. So now there's water all over the freezer. So I shut the door and that made the whole problem go away.
Insomnia's no fun. It seems to have abated recently, but for a while earlier this year I was waking up every morning at 4 and not being able to get back to sleep until ~6. That sucked.
79: ugh, I feel your pain. I do know you're supposed to get out of bed and occupy yourself elsewhere if you can't get back to sleep in a reasonable amount of time. So that you don't start associating bed with lying awake frustrated.
79: The light thing is true. Insomnia really is dreadful. Stay up tonight until your regular bedtime if it's at all possible. Put bright lights in front of you all day and then try not to have too much artificial light on at night.
61: I can't walk a straight line or balance well at all with my eyes closed. if I get pulled over I'm going to tell them we can go straight to the breathalyzer or blood test and save lots of time.
I've always wondered about those US drunk tests. In the UK it's always either a breathalyzer or blood test. I've never heard of any coordination test.
FWIW, I'm pretty sure I could pass a lot of those tests when I was far drunker than I'd even consider driving.*
* like a lot of British people, I never drive after more than 1 drink, which is quite a long way short of where I think I'd fail a breathalyzer...
86. I'm old enough to vaguely remember that they used to do coordination tests before the blood and breathalyser technologies became readily accessible in the early 1960s. A long time ago, though. The story that suspects were required to repeat "The Leith police dismisseth us" as a test for drunkenness is apocyphal AFAIK.
87: Why do they still do them in the US , forty years after breathalysers came along?
So that you don't start associating bed with lying awake frustrated.
... you should get up and start picking some low-hanging fruit?
88. Why can't you get a decent cellphone plan in the US? Why was their analogue television display technology so crappy for so long? Why do so many Americans still use twin tub washing machines?
The list could go on. As far as I can see American capitalists are uninterested in providing the minor comforts that Europeans take for granted and/or American consumers are too idle to demand them. In the case of breathalysers the consumers are the police, which is a bit specialised, but the problem seems to be more general.
The story that suspects were required to repeat "The Leith police dismisseth us" as a test for drunkenness is apocyphal AFAIK.
We used to practice saying the alphabet backward while standing on one foot.
Why do they still do them in the US , forty years after breathalysers came along?
Part of it may be that in at least some states the laws are written so that they can arrest you if you seem impaired even if you are under the legal limit. Mostly it is probably just tradition. Oddly when my friend got pulled over they didn't breathalyze him when he failed the road side test they brought him into the hospital and had blood drawn. That obviously takes a long time and is a hassle. I know the blood test is more accurate, but I don't know why they didn't use a breathalyzer which would have been much quicker.
Standing on one foot would be a gift. I might not be a very good kickboxer, but I've acquired quite the ability to balance on one leg in any number of contorted and seemingly unstable positions.
I have to say that my personal threshold for not driving is considerably higher than one drink.
The primary benefit I received from a few months of Taekwondo years ago was an improved ability to flush a urinal with my feet.
re: 94
Britain has a very different drinking and driving culture. I don't think I've ever driven after more than 2, and even than it was a good while after I'd had them when I drove. I expect my blood alcohol level would have been negligible at the time.
I don't think I've ever driven after more than 2
Boy are you missing out.
I don't think I've ever considered not driving after three.
How would "consumers" go about "demanding" marginal improvements in things?
89: What is wrong with our cell phone plans?
100: they aren't the kind chris y is familiar with. Similiarly, the reason the UK doesn't have Korean taco trucks or majestic desert vistas is that British corporations simply can't be arsed to provide them.
100. I don't know what's wrong with your cellphone plans; I do know that I see and hear Americans moaning about them a lot, so I imagine they must leave something to be desired.
re: 100
The thing that used to amuse/bemuse Brits was that you pay to receive txt messages. But perhaps that's no longer the case?
FWIW, how much does the average cell-phone user pay for an all-inclusive sort of package, per month? So, on mine, I get unlimited data, a couple of thousands texts, and, I think, 10 hours or so of voice calls [to landlines or other mobiles], per month. How much would you pay for that in the US?
Man, I haven't had a majestic desert vista in months. You'd think they've been around long enough that they would be ubiquitous by now.
The UK doesn't have majestic desert vistas because it's never felt inclined to initiate wars of aggression against Mexico. Many other places, yes, but by and large we've left the howling deserts (except where they're floating on oil) to other people and concentrated on annexing the good stuff.
Re: drinking and driving, I'll admit I've driven drunk once (don't remember how much I had, but it was both beer and mixed drinks and maybe even shots too, and I vomited within an hour of getting home), which yes, I know was stupid and I've only done it the once. However, almost weekly for more than two years I was having two beers with dinner with friends and then driving an hour home. Full stomach, not anything stronger than beer, I usually got a cup of coffee on the way to prevent drowsiness, etc.
89: It's not "Americans are undiscriminating consumers" so much as "Americans like their police to have broad, subjective discretion, on the assumption that someone other than themselves is more likely to see the dark side of that".
100: I don't know what's wrong with them today, but I do know that America's cell phone reception coverage is newer and spottier than in most of the UK and Europe. For the past two years, you've seen everyone in a city with a phone, sim-cards or chargable phones or whatever available from drugstores, schools wrestling with banning them entirely or just punishing open use as teens use them in the middle of class? France was dealing with all that stuff 10 years ago.
Not having to drive drunk is probably the best thing about living in a city with good public transportation.
103: Eighty bucks, I'd guess. I don't really know since I don't have a data plan. I pay $40 (including taxes) for unlimited voice without data or texting. Whenever someone sends me a text message, I pretend I'm too cheap to pay $.75 to send a text message in reply when the truth is that I really hate typing them out and am annoyed (in a get off my lawn way) that I'm expected to type on a phone.
103.last: plans here are structured differently (for one thing, they're weighted much more in favor of voice calling as opposed to text) so it would be hard to do an apples-to-apples comparison. I get 12 or so hours of peak calling, 50 or so hours of off-peak calling (I never approach either of those), but only a few hundred text messages per month.
Eighty bucks a month!!!1!ELEVENTY!! Fuck that, buy a couple of semaphore flags.
re: 108
You pay 75c for a text?! Even on pay-as-you-go plans here, where you are charged for everything, you'd pay between 5p and 10p, depending on the company.
I have an old iPhone plan: 7.5 hours of anytime voice, 80-ish hours for nights and weekends, unlimited data, and 200 texts for ~$65 including taxes and fees. (I've sent maybe three text messages in my life.) I think when I eventually upgrade my phone I'll be forced to choose a less appealing plan.
We spend the money we save on transportation, housing and food and spend it on cell phones and health insurance, Mr. Lives-In-One-Of-The-Most-Expensive-Cities-On-The-Planet.
103: I pay $80/month for unlimited voice, text, and data. Sending an email costs me some small amount, but I do that infrequently enough and the price is low enough that I don't know what the number is. My phone doesn't support things like streaming video - probably there'd be a higher price for that.
re: 116
Heh, defensive, much? I'm sure there are counter-examples that work the other way. TV, maybe? The US was much earlier with widespread broadband internet wasn't it? It was certainly earlier with widespread dial-up.
But the EU in general is a lot cheaper, and a lot further down the line in terms of tech and infrastructure when it comes to cellphones.
You pay 75c for a text?!
No because I never send them. It may have gotten cheaper, that but that's what is was four years ago when I switched carriers.
Eighty bucks a month!!!1!ELEVENTY!! Fuck that, buy a couple of semaphore flags.
What do you pay?
116.2: I think that's largely true, yes; partly because big chunks of the US didn't have enough density and partly because landline service was much more affordable in the US than in the EU at the time (due to, mostly talking out my ass, the breakup of Ma Bell plus the prior infrastructure investment of said monopoly) which heightened the contrast. Also, texting didn't take off the same way (or as quickly) here because people were used to voice calls being cheap-to-free, which I'm given to understand wasn't the case in much of (northern) Europe.
In any case, there are plenty of things that bother me about this country (why can't we get the good sunscreen?) but that isn't one of them.
Also, texting didn't take off the same way (or as quickly) here because...
it is a really stupid way to communicate. It's like sending a telegraph on your gmail account. You've got a phone, talk.
I pay something like $60/mo. for some number of hundreds of texts, some zillion hours of voice (which I never approach using up, and the unused minutes of which "roll over" and are added to my minutes), and unlimited data.
When I paid a la carte for txts, I think I paid something like 15 cents per.
(which I never approach using up, and the unused minutes of which "roll over" and are added to my minutes)
I have this too. If I liked talking on the phone, I could talk for like 20 hours at a stretch for no charge.
re: 119
When I first worked in the ISP industry [very early for the UK] that was the perennial point of contrast. US local calls were free, so people could dial into their local POP and pay no per-minute charges, whereas in the UK people paid [when the business first started] more like 4p a minute [minimum]. So, yeah.
re: 120
Are there youths, on your lawn?
Are there youths, on your lawn?
Yes, and a pumpkin that molded because we carved it way too early.
Eighty bucks a month!
$60/mo
Every time the internet-in-your-pocket lure makes my I-fucking-hate-cell-phones gut reaction go wobbly, numbers like this steel it right back up.
I pay about $50 a month, but that includes the cost of the phone [since a lot of UK monthly plans include the phone free]. You could get a similar tariff for significantly less than half that, though, if you already had a phone and just wanted to pay for the service.
You've got a phone, talk.
What if the person you want to talk to can't pick up? SMS is a ridiculous way to carry on a conversation, but if you have a significant amount of information to impart to somebody who may be at work, driving or just off grid for a while, it's a lot cheaper for you and easier for the recipient than voicemail.
127: People there don't answer their phones just because they are driving or at work?
123.1: yep. Actually, I had pre-POP-based dial-up, where I connected via term program to the ISP's (if I recall) SGI box. That was the first commercial ISP, though, and their failure to get on the POP train a few years hence spelled, if not their, doom, their continuing irrelevance, (Actually, looking, they still offer dialup for $20 (!!!!!) a month. That's what you can get away with if you have legacy customers who have had the same e-mail address for twenty years, I guess.)
The nice thing about US plans is the large geographic area they cover. I can go anywhere in the US and be in my network. I don't believe the same is true in the EU although it wouldn't surprise me to see that change.
127, 128: it's better to text people who are driving?
130: yeah. I don't pay roaming charges or long distance charges anywhere in the country. Does long distance even exist anywhere any more? It'd be nice if it didn't; stupid holdover from when wire was prohibitively expensive.
131: The other day, I saw a guy reading a medical journal article while driving past the hospital.
130. For most European providers you can get continent wide coverage for a nominal fee by tie in.
we've left the howling deserts (except where they're floating on oil) to other people and concentrated on annexing the good stuff.
Like the Irish.
but if you have a significant amount of information to impart to somebody who may be at work, driving or just off grid for a while, it's a lot cheaper for you and easier for the recipient than voicemail.
I use email for this. (To leading order I can assume everyone I know receives email on their phone, so I don't see any advantage of sending a text.)
I find it annoying that roaming charges apply in Canada (where I'll be for the next couple of weeks). No ocean-crossing is involved! It's closer than California! What's the deal?
136: I use email also, thought I don't have it on my phone. As near as I can tell, texting is for kids and the socially stunted.
it's better to text people who are driving?
Yes, then they can look at it when they get where they're going.
re: 130
I can go anywhere in Europe and use my phone, no problems. I don't get stung for txting, but data use while abroad is quite expensive. There are call charges while abroad, but you can avoid paying a lot of them via various bundle options. I never bother as the couple of short calls I might make when out of the country don't amount to much.
re: 131
In the UK it's illegal to use the phone while driving, unless using a proper hands-free kit. With txts they are a lot easier for people to pick up later, without all the hassle of voicemail. I fucking hate voicemail.
139: per essear, I would use e-mail for that.
re: 141
That'd be no good for me. Most people I know don't check their email regularly when they are out and about, if they check it much at all. If I want to let a friend know I'm running late, or let a family member know I'm going to ring them later, or any number of things, I'd txt.
135. Annexing Ireland probably made a lot of sense if you were a Norman baron who'd been chizzelled when they were carving up England. Good agricultural land. Made less sense later, but then you're dealing with a lot of historical baggage.
I think the modal voicemail message is, essentially, "Hey, I called you."
I believe this is the implicit categorization of communications methods I use when deciding on one:
1. phone conversation: immediate, synchronous, mobile
2. text:immediate, asynchronous, mobile
3. IM: immediate, asynchronous, largely not mobile
4. e-mail: not immediate, asynchronous, mobile
5. facebook messaging: shitty, not immediate or particularly reliable, asynchronous, marginally mobile.
Most functional conversation is does not require synchronousness, so 1 doesn't come up unless I just want to hear somebody's voice (Blume or my parents, to a first approximation), or if I need to get ungoogleable information from somebody likely to be recalcitrant or unresponsive (stores, service providers). 5 only comes up when I don't have the necessary information to arrange 2-4.
With the caveat that for a lot of people 4 isn't mobile. I expect among my friends and family there's a couple of us who use phones where we can and do regularly check our email, and a load who don't. Most of whom have phones actually perfectly capable of doing so, but they don't know how or have never set it up [that'd include basically everyone in my family].
But yeah, I agree re: 1. I only call my parents or my wife with any regularity. Everyone else gets txts if I need it to be mobile, or e-mails otherwise.
I never feel like it's the right time to talk on the phone. Whenever someone calls I answer as if I'm afraid they'll tell me they have cancer or they just crashed their car. The text message is preferable almost all the time. Based on my family and girlfriend experiences growing up I just feel a sense of awkwardness about all phone conversations because ever hanging up for any reason when you've been talking for less than 80 minutes is a sign that you aren't really interested in talking to the other person.
I know I've been incredibly irritated by the low-end prepaid options in the US vs. in Germany. In the latter, my pay-as-you-go plan is 9 euro-cents per min voice to all German phones, as well as to European & US landlines; €.29 to E/US mobiles; SMS is €.09 to DE, €.19 to E/US. As for data, it's an icky €.24/MB, but you can buy a month of unlimited for €10, which gets throttled down to EDGE speeds (from very fast 3G UMTS/HSDPA) after 200MB, or pay €2.5 a day for no throttling, with a max charge of €25/month.
Sorry to blather on, but I really love my plan--even with the €10 internet fee, I rarely spend over €20/month. If you compare to, say, AT&T's prepaid plans, the difference is striking.
With txts they are a lot easier for people to pick up later, without all the hassle of voicemail. I fucking hate voicemail.
This.
I think the modal voicemail message is, essentially, "Hey, I called you."
Comparably frequent voicemail messages are "..." or a computer-voice saying "your car warranty may be about to expire!"
150: I think those people went to jail. At least, I'm not getting those anymore.
151: Yeah, I guess it has been a while. Huh.
151. Nowadays you get recorded calls which start out by saying, "Do not hang up. This is a genuine public information message..." before offering you something like a 419 scam built around debt restructuring.
Autres temps, autres moeurs, I guess.
153: On your cell phone? The U.S. is very good at keeping those kind of calls on the land lines. The case essear mentioned was widely noted because it was so rare.
The idle educated: on food stamps and writing books
154. Mostly on land lines, but it's a growing problem. I suspect if it gets big they'll "do something".
My preferred method of communication is howling "Go away!" from behind a locked door.
158: The monthly plan for that is very cheap, but you never get your pizza that way.
genuine public
I am eagerly waiting for "legit" to appear in a big-budget advertisement. Has anyone here heard this word used by a speaker over 30?
It is too bad about the blogs. Emerson was ahead of the curve in self-publishing those in fixed form. I liked equity private, outer life, and a few others quite a bit.
Here are a couple that I like now, which are heavier on links than the above, but still have interesting writing
http://resobscura.blogspot.com/
http://www.dangerousminds.net/
112: My plan which includes Canada offers texting for 20 cents each, and it costs to receive one. We don't have , so I hate it when people send me one. I have a plan with unlimited calling to 5 selected people.
I'd much rather e-mail someone than text. I want a smartphone so bad--especially for the 4-5 hours that I'm on a bus per day.
For my work phone I use a prepaid service which runs on Verizon's network, because they only give us $40 per month. I get 1200 minutes of talk, 1200 texts and 50MB of data.
You can get unlimited with them for $44.
Has anyone here heard this word used by a speaker over 30?
Hammer was 29 when this came out, but I reckon he's performed it since.
And James Brown was way past 30 in that video.
137: Canada's cell phone plans are worse than those in the U.S. I'm sure that Rogers et al. charge a lot for access.
You can get an iphone with Canada included now (for a while only Verizon offered this), but you have to pay for data by the day.
Wasn't the peak of the word "legit" being cool around 1994?
Because I don't have a smartphone, I have used texts to receive telephone numbers that I needed right away when I didn't have access to paper.
167. Don't you get people to send the numbers as "business cards"? That way you can save them straight to your phone's memory.
I don't have a smartphone either. I could set the one I have to use email, but although I have a SMTP account somewhere I never use it and nobody knows it, so there would be little point. But I don't see much difference between email and txt on a cheap phone.
168: I'd also like access to the web, because then I'd be able to track the buses.
There are lots of words that I have learned from pop music (skeezer, chocha). If these words appear in conversation in my direct experience, they get mentioned, not used. This may be a function of my age and the people that I actually talk to, none of whom for instance wear fauxhawks or have nickname tattoos in elaborate fonts. I was curious about who actually uses "legit," in particular about the upper limit on age.
I think I might say "legit" non-ironically. But now I'll know to feel embarrassed.
none of whom for instance wear fauxhawks or have nickname tattoos in elaborate fonts
Yet.
I use the word "legit", usually in questions expecting the answer "No" (Num est enitirely legit?). So do a lot of people I know. Demographic: English, white, 59.
I was curious about who actually uses "legit,"
Every thief who ever tried to go straight but got pulled in for one last job.
171: FWIW I use it regularly enough. It's handy shorthand and everyone knows what it means. No reason not to use it that I can see.
Togolosh also announces when it's hammertime.
And informs you that, if you wish to make it today, you're going to have to pray to do it.
If you kids keep saying things ironically all the time, you'll eventually just start enjoying saying them and the irony part of you will merge with the earnest part. You will stumble aimlessly through the desert, failing to discern what you like from what you hate, never reaching the mountains.
178: I can't tell if you're being sincere.
Num est enitirely legit?
Is this English or latin? So the usage is about say a money broker and the meaning is roughly "reliable?" Is it idiomatic to use it as a modifier to a subjective experience? say, I'm not fronting, my professional ambition/love for you/need for speed/ is legit.
178.2 describes the internet, would be good hovertext.
179: Yes, I am a hideous example to all.
178: Also, your eyes will stick like that.
I fucking hate voicemail.
You have...TWO...messages. FIRST...message, sent...YESTERDAY...at...FIVE...FORTY-FIVE...P.M....
ARGHSTABSTABSTAB.
If I ever met that woman, I'd probably have a seizure.
Sometimes it's really hard to assess how bad you feel. I just feel a bit woozy and out of sorts. I'm loathe to cancel class because that always seems to create extra work in the long run. It's hard to say.
Hope you feel better. Have you considered having class but just showing a video?
It could be something really stupid like my clothes are too tight and binding some blood vessel or something. In which case I should not go home.
Show them that Flatland animated short! That's . . . kinda mathy.
The super-short imdb page tells me 11 minutes. I forgot that Dudley Moore does the voice!
189: I thought you'd never ask.
Oh boy. astralresearch.org reviews it. It=the movie. Not apo's junk.
There's also Donald Duck In Mathmagic Land, which is good for nearly half an hour.
I really really love the Mathmagic Land cartoon.
I thought you'd never ask.
And it has to last 75 minutes.
Re Field Sobriety Tests:
One legged stand and walk and turn could be done drunk, but HGN is going to get you every time.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7jy4ErSKT4M
The tests aren't for the love of broad police powers, it's because you have to establish probable cause that the subject is impaired. If the UK and European countries aren't doing that it's probably because they have a lot more latitude to just make people take the chemical test.
And it has to last 75 minutes.
borrrring
it's because you have to establish probable cause that the subject is impaired.
I'm glad you wrote this -- since that's why I assumed they did the field tests.
apo, how long has that been waiting in your pocket?
Does refusal to perform the field test count as probable cause in itself? Or is compliance with the field test voluntary -- you could just say "No, I don't want to balance on one foot for you. May I go?" It seems weird that the necessary basis for compelling a driver to pass a physical test is lower than that for compelling them to pass a chemical test.
200: I'm just happy to see you, text.
201: I think they hold you then. And get a warrant. And it all takes a long time. I've never refused a field sobriety test, but I have refused to let a cop search my car.
I'm just happy to see you, text.
Especially when you text with no hands.
203: I always say, "Let me remove the illegal fireworks first." Then they can search the car.
Does refusal to perform the field test count as probable cause in itself? Or is compliance with the field test voluntary
Here you're not technically required to submit to field sobriety tests. If someone does that then you have to determine if you've got enough PC to get the chemical test without them, ie slurred speech, strong smell of alcohol, unsteady on their feet, etc. Refusal of the chemical test is an automatic 18 month suspension of your DL. The chemical tests aren't really optional what with the implied consent aspect of getting the license in the first place. If we need to we can just hold someone down and take blood. IIRC implied consent, at least in this state means you don't technically need a warrant but I think SOP is to get the warrant as the E-warrants are pretty fast.
Can you give the officer permission to search just the parts of your car where you don't keep the illegal stuff? (I've only been asked once and I said yes. I knew that technically I could have been cited for trespassing.)
If we need to we can just hold someone down and take blood.
AIN'T THAT THE TRUTH
Refusal of the chemical test is an automatic 18 month suspension of your DL.
That is, refusal of the chemical test after the officer has PC is an automatic suspension, right? Without PC, it wouldn't be.
If someone does that then you have to determine if you've got enough PC to get the chemical test without them, ie slurred speech, strong smell of alcohol, unsteady on their feet, etc.
So, in theory, you could just say no to a field test (at least in Utah), and in the absence of other evidence of drunkenness, the cops would send you on your way.
Can you give the officer permission to search just the parts of your car where you don't keep the illegal stuff? (I've only been asked once and I said yes. I knew that technically I could have been cited for trespassing.)
You're kind of screwed once they've got an arrestable offense to hang on you. If cops really want to get in that card then the easy option is to arrest you on the trespass and then "inventory" the car for the impound.
I'm definitely the guy you want catching you with illegal fireworks. "Fireworks are glorious and those look awesome. One of your neighbors is ratting you out so put them away for tonight and tell everyone I cussed you out and confiscated them."
So, in theory, you could just say no to a field test (at least in Utah), and in the absence of other evidence of drunkenness, the cops would send you on your way.
Yep.
What peep said. I'm a cop, not a trier of fact.
||
Since it fell off the main page: for NYC folks, I'll be at Pac Standard tonight (Tuesday) around 8, and people are welcome to join me. Teraz Kurwa My said he might stop by. And Merganser will be in town this weekend. Crazy times!
|>
157: I have a really hard time understanding this bill. $1100 for international roaming, when you have unlimited text? Why not just use VoIP when roaming? (Or rather -- why doesn't whoever is paying the bill have a policy about this, in order to save a ton of $?)
216: Oy, sorry I won't be able to make it.
217, oops: err, 'when you have unlimited international data.'
214: As could be said of virtually all of my comments -- 213 isn't exactly an argument.
Well, yeah. God forbid that 12 citizens should, by common assent, in full view of the public, and after careful deliberation, substitute their moral intuitions for the wisdom of the legislature, but any dude with a badge and a gun (who, probabilistically speaking, is less enlightened than gswift) can do so at his sole discretion and in secret?
Imperfect system for sure. As I mentioned in the other thread, I'm just not sure how to get around that somebody has to be the trier of fact and I think that's a role probably better off that stays within those strict parameters and doesn't exercise the type of discretion that exists in multiple other aspects of the system.
I wonder sometimes what percentage of the economy is driven by "paying way too much because the corporate expense account is footing the bill." Knecht's cell phone bill is an example, but, e.g., half the restaurant business in midtown Manhattan and parts of LA would vanish overnight if folks were paying their own bills. The hotel industry is obviously largely driven by this.
As is much of the defense-side legal industry, I guess.
Yep.
How often do people refuse a field sobriety test and not get taken in for the blood test in practice?
x, what do you look like? I'm moderately tall, bald, fortyish, with glasses.
and OT: but anybody have flashbacks to Billy Wilder'sAce in the Hole (The Big Carnival) while reading about the Chile mine story? (For those who haven't seen it, do. The first fifteen minutes or so are hokey crap, but after that it's a great movie.)
How often do people refuse a field sobriety test and not get taken in for the blood test in practice?
Odds of actually pulling this off are slim to none.
227: There was a lawyer in Ohio who managed to avoid a DUI conviction by refusing everything. I think it only worked because he was a lawyer and because the 'implied consent' penalty was not nearly as harsh back then.
226: Short, glasses, short lightish hair. Grey on grey shirt. Black backpack. Or you can just ask at the bar for Peter.
203: How did it go refusing to let your car be searched? In law school, we always said dramatic things about how we'd refuse to let our cars be searched but at least for me, I would crumble in a second. I get extremely nervous, despite never doing anything worse than speeding.
227: Wait, gswift is a cop in Utah? You're not the one that ticked me for going five miles over in a school zone are you?
229: Or you can just ask at the bar for Peter.
The introvert's version of, "Who wants to sex Mutombo?"
233-235: Argh, I knew I should try to let that go unnoticed. But you would pick it up regardless, wouldn't you?
237: My angry neighbor was right about Starbucks.
One legged stand and walk and turn could be done drunk, but HGN is going to get you every time.
Heh. I got pulled over late one night because the cops' computer indicated that I was uninsured, which I was not, and not because I was smashed, which I was. (Yeah, yeah, I know, bad. It was a long time ago, and it was an anomaly.) So when it turned out that the proof of insurance I could have sworn was right there in the glove box wasn't, the cop ordered me out, frisked me and gave me the HGN test. I focused all of my energy on following the flashlight with my eyes for what seemed like an eternity; the cop told me I was fine, but that they'd have to impound my truck because of the insurance thing. Meanwhile, his partner was conducting an illegal search of the cab, which I thought best not to contest seeing as how I was drunk, and he was so thorough that he found my proof of insurance, which I'd put on the seat and had slipped between the cushions and into the area behind with all the gardening junk. Thanks, officers! And then I didn't bother even to look for five dollars, since I figured I'd just been saved an enormous fuckload of money.
Wait, gswift is a cop in Utah?
Salt Lake PD. It's pretty easy to spot me in person as my handle and name tag are both first initial + last name, but I'm guessing you're not spending much time on the west side of Salt Lake where I work.
Meanwhile, his partner was conducting an illegal search of the cab
Inventory for impound which is legal and, uh, totally not a backdoor way to look for guns and drugs.
@237: just look at the divide along the 49th Parallel. As well as the longest undefended land frontier, it's also surely the one with the biggest ideological gradient that doesn't involve machine guns, land mines, and vicious dogs.
Maybe premature, but to be safe -- NMM to DADT!
Inventory for impound which is legal
Don't they have to tell you first that they're impounding it? (Or, don't you have to tell them first that you're impounding it?)
244: Although the politics of any particular state that borders Canada is usually not too terribly different from that of the province to which it is adjacent.
242: No way! I live in SLC, but I'm only on the west side to get groceries from Cali's Natural Foods. But I will be on the lookout for you.
240, 241: What's the frequency?
As well as the longest undefended land frontier, it's also surely the one with the biggest ideological gradient that doesn't involve machine guns, land mines, and vicious dogs.
Not sure what "ideological" means here, but what about Russia/Finland? Poland/Germany?
@248: look at the chart. all Canadian provinces are in the top 10% for implied tolerance. oddly, the queerest of the lot is Manitoba, which isn't obvious to say the least (more so than NYC or Portland, OR).
Russia/Finland: Russians on one side, on the other, a 300,000 strong Finnish conscript army.
Poland/Germany: it's 2010. They're in the EU and the Schengen agreement. The border is the point at which your mobile phone changes networks.
I'm only on the west side to get groceries from Cali's Natural Foods.
Heh. Think farther west, like on the other side of the freeway where they filmed this.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wYVxlSyIfnU
Don't they have to tell you first that they're impounding it?
Not really. Other guy probably started while you were still doing the HGN seeing as they figured it was going to get impounded for either DUI or no insurance and had to be inventoried either way.
If "ideological gradient" means "admitting to being gay curious," I would be very much surprised if, on the whole, the contemporary difference between Polish and German attitudes towards homosexuality were not much greater than US/Canadian.
Other international borders that likely have a considerable difference on this issue (putting aside areas of extreme border conflict): US/Mexico and Thailand/Malaysia. Probably also Austria/Hungary. And I'd be interested to see the data for Great Britain and the Republic of Ireland.
255: Yeah, I've not been that far west. I was wondering where all the crime occurred because the worst that I've seen so far is run down houses.
Am I too late for JRoth? Hi, JRoth.
About the actual post topic: it's sort of interesting how with so many blogs, the stage immediately before it flares out seems to be "becoming a group blog." After that it either becomes a gargantuan presence standing astride the Blogiversospheristan like a colossus, or it vanishes.
I wasn't surprised that the latter happened to BitchPhD, simply because most of the regular readers went there for B's very specific personality, style and views, and I would expect there was a significant drop in readership when she stopped writing there regularly. (I know I largely stopped reading it about that time, lovely as her friends and subsequent group-bloggers were; there were some good post-B posts but mentally the site just wasn't on my "visit daily" checklist any more. Perhaps helped by the fact that I wasn't entirely a fan of "Sybil Vane" who seemed to be the most prolific of the subsequent posters.) In this sense it's pretty remarkable that Unfogged continues to survive Ogged.
249: Somewhere in the archives there are links to pictures, should you want to stalk him.
I'm interested that even rural Texas seems to be more gay-curious than most of the South.
258: It's funny, I really like all of her co-bloggers, and I did the same dropoff. Part of it was just the low volume: even with four? five? bloggers, it was only a post or two a week, mostly.
I do miss Bitch as a frequent poster.
This place runs off the commenters at this point. Heebie and Stanley do yeoman work feeding the blog, but if we didn't have a critical mass of chatter in the comments, it would have turned its toes up long ago, I think.
I only comment here to pwn people, really.
Actually, thinking about it, that map appears to be broken out on a county-by-county basis for the US and on a province-by-province basis in Canada, which means it doesn't tell you very much about US/Canadian differences. I'm sure that NY State, for example, would look very different if broken out on a statewide basis.
Really, the most surprising thing to me about the map is that even eastern Oregon is pretty openly gay curious. Maybe there are only like three OKC subscribers there.
Pwnage is like the Unfoggedtarian's Energon.
It really is hard nattering on ignorantly about stuff. My typical impulse to post these days gets quashed by the instant realization that I have no idea what I'm talking about. Somehow that used not to stop me.
Hey gswift: If there were a Zombie Pub Crawl in SLC, and the middle-class white kids dressed up as zombies got fake blood and grease paint and vomit and urine all over everything, including your squad car, would you tase them?
If your answer is yes, please see if there is any way you can be seconded to the Minneapolis Police Department in time for the next Zombie Pub Crawl here.
258: I couldn't relate to Ding and Taddyporter.
I liked Sybil's posts because she would get so upset about very commonly held opinions, like the general consensus that people shouldn't have to put up with your screaming child in a restaurant. She actually equated not liking kids to being someone that doesn't like women, minorities and the disabled. It's a very different perspective and I enjoyed seeing her defend her position.
I feel that the front page posters aren't thinking outside the box sufficiently for how to spice up late-period Unfogged. Some suggestions:
-- All-singing musical episode
-- Two long-standing FP posters get married
-- Insane stunt casting FP poster (maybe invite the Instapundit?)
-- The somehow-not-quite-as-awesome-as-it -should-be return of Ogged, kind of like when Luke Perry returned in the last two seasons of 90210.
The somehow-not-quite-as-awesome-as-it -should-be return of Ogged
That's been done already.
266: I hear you. That's part of why I've always been a gadfly on other people's blogs instead of maintaining my own.
268.2: Yeah, I remember that post of Sybil's. Sort of an example of why I didn't find her entertaining. Different strokes, I guess!
269: We need some posts that consist entirely of flashbacks to older posts.
And a Very Special Post where a FPP learns an Important Lesson About Life. And saying no to drugs. (And it can't be Alameida. Standpipe, maybe.)
And a series of posts where all the FPPs are really bitchy and mean to each other while they vote on which one of them has to leave the blog.
If there were a Zombie Pub Crawl in SLC
We had ours sans Pubs in Aug.
http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/entertainment/50078231-75/south-200-building-county.html.csp
I was on downtown beat that night. All very pleasant. Joked around with a few. No tasing, but I didn't see any vomit or urine either.
Are talking intentionally dumping a bucket of vomit on a police car, or just a drunk throwing up in the back seat?
267: From past reports on Minneapolis PD, seems like you should be able to get them to go hard on the problem by telling them the zombies are poor people in disguise.
If I had a TASER, I tase in the morning.
re: 266
Yeah, there can also be a bit of Dunning-Kruger about that, too, though. Often the person most wary of speaking up, is one of the best informed on the topic.
Can anybody just buy a taser? Hypothetically speaking, does Pennsylvania law do me a solid on this one?
I want to see the FPPs doing this.
Anyway, the FPP's should fight. Videos on youtube.
Heebie-Geebie and Stanley are doing a great job keeping the posting frequency up.
I take it Natilo's pub did not come out well in that event. Where's the pictures?
Can anybody just buy a taser?
A civilian taser is like 400 bucks. Gives a hellishly long ride of 30 seconds. Standard cycle on the law enforcement models is five seconds.
Anyway, the FPP's should fight.
Only if I can fight alameida while she's still sick or heebie while she's still pregnant.
276: I think you are OK. One site's list of restricted states and cities. ("TASER® X26C Consumer Model- NEW!!" - $899)
* HAWAII
* MASSACHUSETTS
* MICHIGAN
* NEW JERSEY
* NEW YORK
* RHODE ISLAND
* WISCONSIN
* ILLINOIS
* CONNECTICUT
* PUERTO RICO
* DISTRICT OF COLUMBI
* ANNAPOLIS, MD
* BALTIMORE, MD
* BALTIMORE COUNTY, MD
* DENSION / CRAWFORD COUNTY, IA (*According to Sheriff Tom Hogan*)
* PHILADELPHIA
re: 282
Don't you have an unfair advantage? You have at one time or another, sported a mullet. That's good for extra points right there ...
280: No, actually, we have no pub anymore, and we were all congratulating ourselves on not having to spend several hours cleaning up zombie crap this year.
What the zombies do, you see, is make all this fake blood with corn syrup and red food coloring, and smear it all over themselves, so that anything they touch gets a layer of that, plus usually greasepaint as well. Then, some of them actually fill their mouths up with the fake blood mixture and dramatically "vomit" it onto things. Also, they all get really drunk and vomit everywhere and indulge in the prohibited vice of public urination. And there are like, 10,000 of them, so they effectively control the streets. And they're all white kids from the colleges and suburbs. And they do this every year in the neighborhood with the largest concentration of Somalis outside of Africa, the majority of whom are devout Muslims.
It was funny for the first couple of years when it was just a few hundred of them, they were mostly well-behaved, and many of them were people who are in the neighborhood all the time for work or school or entertainment. But now it's turned into this awful celebration of anti-social, community-destroying behavior (and not in a good way) -- I didn't even mention all the sexual assaults.
272: See, that seems very pleasant and good-humored. Here they just act like assholes all night.
Heebie-Geebie and Stanley are doing a great job keeping the posting frequency up.
You're lucky I didn't see this before posting something just now, or I would have withheld it out of SPITE. (Um, unless you were being sincere, but I read it as good-natured mocking.)
287: We also had a 5k Zombie run last Saturday. I didn't go but the clerk at Whole Foods was extremely excited to participate. You are either infected or a survivor so you either get to chase the survivors or be chased. The survivors get a one minute lead.
288: It's either sincere or should be -- I'm awfully fond of this place, but I'm not pulling my weight. Without you and Heebie it'd be awfully dead around here.
Hey LB, does the Tia who is listed as a contributer ever post? And why did Unf stop posting? I need more back story.
it'd be awfully dead around here
But if gets dead enough, it gets undead and then—zombie pub crawl!
I think this place looks fine. I can't remember the last week without seven posts and 500 comments. Not that I'm keeping score, but you know what I mean - you worry too much. In the long run, sure, Unfogged is doomed - in the long run everything is doomed. But this community without paid support, a meatspace backbone (that is, based on a group that started in real life) or a specific mission statement is more vibrant than many with all of those.
It was funny for the first couple of years when it was just a few hundred of them...
Like stink bugs.
293: Not that I'm keeping score, but you know what I mean - you worry too much.
1,000 comment meta-thread, here we come!
291: Tia left because she was unhappy about some aspects of the community, and is missed -- she used to have a blog of her own, but it's been dormant for years. But commenters who are better about keeping in touch with people are still in touch.
Unf was eaten by zombies, and Bob died in a tragic bahn-mi sandwich press accident.
DISTRICT OF COLUMBI
A whole district full of Columbo replicants, and they won't even let the poor criminals have their own TASERS?!
295: unfogged was way better when there were more metathreads. I don't want to point fingers, but I feel like there's a certain cabal of popular commenters here who are kind of inadvertently keeping the metathreads from happening.
297: They're like succubi, but more rumpled; the tasers would only make them stronger.
303: What's with the insane trolling today? First Mormon insults now Jews?
298: Seems like something you could take care of yourself if you weren't so busy beating your wife.
306: Yes, I should know not to use numbers when the comments are sure to disappear.
This place really has changed. Everyone's too busy leading rich and fulfilling lives to shout "RTFA!!!!"
If your answer is yes, please see if there is any way you can be seconded to the Minneapolis Police Department in time for the next Zombie Pub Crawl here.
I am pretty sure my sister was participating in this. I am still waiting for the crazy person to think there are actually zombies and let off with a shotgun.
You're lucky I didn't see this before posting something just now, or I would have withheld it out of SPITE. (Um, unless you were being sincere, but I read it as good-nature mocking.)
I was being sincere. Blogs need posts.
LizSpigot, you know that the insane trolling anti-Mormon or anti-Jew comments are the Troll of Sorrow, right? Do not respond.
And hey, I like meta-threads, but you should probably pretend I didn't say that.
I just spent something like three minutes trying to figure out how 303 insulted Jews. And what 302 implied about Mormons.
Also, no one from unfogged will ever call you at home and ask for your PIN.
311: Oh! In that case disregard 288, and thanks!
Also, no one from unfogged will ever call you at home and ask for your PIN.
Oh yes we will! And be sure to have SSN and Birthday handy. Also mother's patronymic, I mean maiden name.
268.2 I thought that in that post Sybil created a straw man who hated kids for no particular reason, and then she spent the rest of the post kicking that straw man. A big fight ensued, with some people defending Sybil's right to create and then kick a straw man, and other people confessing they don't like it when toddlers scream and act entitled, at which point those people became stand-ins for the straw men and were also kicked. Then the blog died.
So, much as I mostly enjoyed reading Sybil's other posts about academia and moving with family for work, things I could really relate to, I can't help but think that she killed B's blog.
296: Unf actually commented not that long ago in a thread linking to a deLong thread.
Bob died in a tragic bahn-mi sandwich press accident.
This is hilarious.
When it was all over, though? He was delicious.
bahn mi
German trucker's self-affirmation, or a subtle request for help with one's addiction to Unfogged?
Bob died in a tragic bahn-mi sandwich press accident.
Where do you think headcheese comes from?
If you've seen headcheese, you know the question isn't "where" but "who?"
And let us not forget Meekins, who doesn't even have an entry in the About list. I miss…
That's a funny name for a sandwich.
She actually equated not liking kids to being someone that doesn't like women, minorities and the disabled.
This is when I stopped reading.
Kids a pretty much disabled, if only temporarily. Many of them are minorities and a bare majority will be women.
317: Yes.
328: Also yes. (The comments on that post were especially terrible, where dissenters were insulted and called trolls and held up as proving Sybil's point.)
317, 328, 330: Although, while she was over the top enough that it was hard to engage with, she was recognizably (to me) in the neighborhood of something interesting. You do get some people who dislike children in a manner disproportionate to any actual hardship they inflict on those around them; who seem to resent being able to perceive children in their vicinity. And that's weird and unpleasant and worth talking about.
Didn't we already have a long thread about this exact topic?
WE ARE AT PAC STANDARD! THE PARTY IS HERE!!! WOO!!!
Ok, kidding. Actually, the mini-meetup was lame, 3 of us.
I knew I should have paid for M., the woman from the THS concert, to come down here on Acela... I mean, hell, I already spent $60 on a cab to Waltham...
You think that's a funny name for a sandwich, Spuckie?
Comment number 333. Three threes about three. Trinity.
Dude, I would have paid for the Acela if it got us entertaining enough liveblogging.
I find it a potentially interesting topic as well, but couldn't get past the offensiveness of the comparison. There's certainly a kind of argument that is over the top in the service of polemics, this struck me more as a contentless gotcha! move.
But teo's right. Sorry to rehash. (Though I think I avoided that earlier thread. The topic makes people crazy!)
337: Yeah, I can't really argue with that. (or with the fact that this was endlessly hashed out in a thread that proved only that Armsmasher is both beketchup'd and unhusbandable.
Dude, I would have paid for the Acela if it got us entertaining enough liveblogging.
Dude, you live close enough that you could actually attend these things rather than relying on liveblogging.
The news today talked about kids doing something called "cheese." I'm going to assume that only the hardest cases will start to take some Acela.
341: Ha! I deserved that. Although tonight I had a good excuse, since I've been packing for a trip that requires me to be at Newark airport at 7-ish in the morning. I should probably try to sleep now.
I don't really understand why Sybil Vane is getting flack from you all when there were a bunch of other bloggers over there (not B or M LeBlanc) who were totally unreadable, incoherent, and crazy, and not in the good B buttsex way.
Ahhh, that was too dickish. Oh well.
Apart from the three you mentioned, there were only two more, weren't there? The blogger formerly known as Ding, and Taddy. Couldn't get on with Ding due to an excess of earnestness (and not the good kind, O'Nest), and whenever I read Taddy I wondered how on earth he wound up blogging on a feminist blog.
So I'm not particularly sorry the blog in its latest form died, but I am definitely sorry to not be reading anything from B any longer.
344: m. used to comment here a lot, as did Sybil. I actually liked Sybil's comments here. m. had good posts about cooking. Her politics posts were probably good too. I just wasn't motivated enough to read them.
344: I had never read that blog until someone linked the thread about baby-hatin'. I assume Sybil Vane is a smart/interesting person, but that thread was pure, free-range, line-caught, artisanal wank and I never went back to check out the other unreadable bloggers whereof you type.
Taddy's rambling kind of drove me up the wall. Everyone else's posts I at least enjoyed reading, whether or not I agreed with the conclusion.
You know what blog has sucked for a long time?
MINE!
AHAHAHAAHA.
For real, though.
BitchPhd was my gateway blog to this place. And I wish B was still commenting/blogging. Infuriating at times, no question, butalmost always made me think.
I was never on top of Bitch's comments section -- I read the occasional thread, but not to know who people were. But I assumed that Taddy was an endearing commenter, who didn't really come across as well in a post rather than comment format. He seemed nice, but not all that interesting if you weren't already buddies with him.
Taddy strikes me as being Bob M without the crazy. I think there's a place in the republic of letters for people like that, but I'm not sure quite where.
Taddy strikes me as being Bob M without the crazy.
Wouldn't that be like a brick house without the bricks?
350: I am dead lazy about clicking through and didn't realize you had one. Yay!
I am still sorta half-assedly gesturing at nudging a group blog into existence, only the people I enlisted and thought would be compulsive content factories have been silent as the grave. You never know who is of a nature to blog, it turns out.
I am dead lazy about clicking through and didn't realize you had one.
Ouch.
Wait, did I accidentally say something really rude? Or am I missing a joke? Sometimes I miss jokes around here, and as many times as I google "blog" and "standpipe" I just can't find the damn thing.
358: Broderella is deeply offended!
I didn't know he had a blog until after I got to know him. When he started commenting here everyone was like,* Hey whoa, Sifu Tweety is here! And I had no idea who this dude was supposed to be or why I should know him.
*Sorry, apo.
a bunch of other bloggers over there (not B or M LeBlanc) who were totally unreadable, incoherent, and crazy
I assume both of them (Ding and Taddy) had blogs elsewhere before that? Because it seemed that they both just jumped into writing posts with an assumption that their readers knew them. So when they would talk about their jobs or their family/personal situations, I didn't have the background to know quite what they were talking about.
In other hanging up the blogging cleats news, In other hanging up the blogging cleats news, Michael Bérubé looks like he is doing that ... again, but this time I think it will stick (he says he'll post at Crooked Timber from time to time).
And I had no idea who this dude was supposed to be or why I should know him.
Those were the days, eh?
360: I keep meaning to RTFA and figure out what he did before. Then I always realize that would take many minutes and I don't have that kind of time.
OT: They changed the lights in my office. Instead of sickly florescent office-pallor tubes of light, I now have perky, bottom of the swimming pool blue lights. I'm either going to become a productive demon or puke.
Three minutes' thought would suffice to find this out; but thought is irksome and three minutes is a long time.
(I congratulate myself on arriving at this conclusion 90 years before the invention of the internet.)
I now have perky, bottom of the swimming pool blue lights
Why don't you suggest office skinny dipping to boost morale and productivity.
366: Few people think more than two or three times a year. I've made an international reputation for myself by thinking once or twice a week.
367. Do you really want to see most of your colleagues naked? Even under water in soft lighting? The thought appalls me.
I got in a taxi this afternoon (I take a lot of taxis cos I'm not good at walking) which was upholstered in crimson and suffused with a delicate rosy glow from under the seat. It was fun, but I kind of hope it doesn't start a fashion.
I got in a cab not too long ago that was outfitted with disco lights, headrest video monitors, and real-musician microphones (i.e., brand-name, XLR-connection dealies) for each passenger. The AV and llighting systems were off, but the driver explained that, while he often operated like a normal cab, he also offered a karaoke cab service. Basically, you hire him as your DD for the night and he shunts you around town, presumably with you and your friends singing ever more loudly and choosing ever more terrible songs to sing as the night wears on.
Do you really want to see most of your colleagues naked?
Yes.
No luck. I am neither productive nor sick so I can't go home.
Fuck me, do you work in a model agency? Most of my colleagues are just short of 50, just short of obese and just short. (Certainly there are exceptions, but I bet they'd have better things to do than go skinny dipping with the office.)
Heh. My office does have a high number of young, attractive people working there, but it isn't really about that. Bodies are interesting on levels other than sexual attraction, and people look so *different* without clothes. For example, I'm sort of fascinated by scars.
"Would you like to come up and look at my stitchings?"
360: I didn't put two and two together until someone mentioned the Great Rock-and-Roll Meltdown Post, and then I was like,* Ohhh, you're that guy.
*Not sorry!
disco lights, headrest video monitors, and real-musician microphones
You're in the Cash Cab!
This seems as good a place as any to tell a story I want to tell here because I can't on my own blog. In the last week, I've had my all-time weirdest blog-related experience, though I have to add the disclaimer that it's not actually as weird as it seems given that my blog is part of the special needs/adoption blogosphere.
In the last week, I had another blogger get in touch with me and ask if we'd be interested in adopting that blogger's child. Ze does legitimately need a home (can't live safely with other children in the home) and I'm aware of the situation and have read that blog for years and know the details, but I just can't get over the what-the-fuckness of getting an email that says that. We didn't entirely say no even though I'm creeped out by adoption disruptions/dissolutions and private adoptions (minimal state involvement) because the kiddo truly does need a place to live permanently even though I have a hard time imagining that it would be us, but still yikes!
379. A function of the weird false intimacy of blogs. Because of the distance, anonymity, or whatever bloggers (and commenter) will write things they would never say in person, which leads to the false intimacy. False is the wrong word though, because the intimacy is there, but it is different than really knowing someone. I mean, you really could be a dog.
I mean, you really could be a dog.
Not for long if the neighbors keep calling the cops whenever I shit in the yard.
You guys, I couldn't resist. I do miss it here, I just am so bad about measuring my time. And also I feel sort of pissed that you are still talking about the kid hatin' post without having really come around on it.
It wasn't me. RH said it. Smash him.
Nah, not just him. Even LB only thinks I was in the vicinity of reasonableness. Im so actually unreasonable about so many things, I hate for this one to misrepresentatively be the legacy. I do generally love the idea that I get so upset by commonly held opinions/views. So upset, I do.
Anyway, hi, all.
the Great Rock-and-Roll Meltdown Post, and then I was like,*
Hoo.
*Not sorry!
I was, boy.
Nah, not just him.
I think he's doing some kind of extreme low carb diet, so I want to see if he has the endurance to flee for a reasonable distance.
386: Caveman diet, I thought. If she chases him, he'll probably just react by going to kill a mastodon or something.
382: I think plenty of people have agreed that there are some who seem to just dislike kids for reasons that aren't good enough, but aside from that, I'm not sure you're going to get much coming around on it.
That post was a while back, anyway, and was hashed out pretty thoroughly at the time.
387: And cavemen hated kids. Thats why they invented patriarchy.
I found your kid hatin' post much more reasonable than B's argument that sex in public places should be welcomed by those who unexpectedly witness it, Sybil.
Thanks.
388: oh I don't expect any coming around, I was mostly just surprised that's the reason being cited for not liking me. When it seems like there are better ones, I mean.
I only a really tiny bit meant to rehash. I actually just wanted to say hi.
Wait, hold on, I was actually pretty sympathetic to the hating-the-kid-haters post. I was just being an asshole to some of SV's former co-bloggers, not calling out that post specifically.
And now you know.
And I was stirring discord for no reason.
392: But weren't you the no-kids-in-bars guy in our thread?
No, I was the kids generally AREN'T allowed in bars guy (thinking of over-21 limited places), and that in places where kids are allowed other folks should be tolerant of them.
I know that you are all awaiting clarifications of ALL of my prior positions with great anticipation.
So, much as I mostly enjoyed reading Sybil's other posts about academia and moving with family for work, things I could really relate to, I can't help but think that she killed B's blog.
GAH. I still maintain that that was one of Sybil's best posts, that she was 100% right, and that it was in the best tradition of the blog to challenge conventional opinions. I don't see why people feel the need to defend the right to hate groups of people who are different from themselves for any reason whatsoever.
That said, thanks for the kind remarks. It is nice to be missed.
Sybil! Bitch! Now that you're not burdened by blogging, you'll hang out here all the time, right?
That's actually why I killed the blog: so we could hang out here.
402: Just don't bring your kid, okay?
I just don't want ketchup smeared all over my cock jokes, see.
Always so fussy about your cock jokes, apo.
It's still okay if I relish those jokes, though, right?
Hey, the neighbourhood's looking up.
What happens to the picture of the brassy little girl, Bitch?
No more masturbating to it once the site goes down, TLL.
Or to General Johnson [insert "Give Me Just a Little More Time" joke].
Good thing I have it burned into my brain, Apo.
You take it to one of those mall shops and have it printed onto a tshirt. DUH.
So you're saying it's okay for me to stop squatting on bitchphd.com? B/c I've been holding onto it for years.
That first sentence just doesn't sound right.
Hi Sybil! It's Old Home Week!
Am I too late for JRoth? Hi, JRoth.
Not too late. Hi, DS! Send me a note, if you would. Email at name.
JRoth! So glad you are still here-ish to say hi! Are you keeping 412 in good shape for me?
415: In Soviet Russia, BitchPhd squats on you.
NCProsecutor, come on down! You're the next contestant on The Price Is Right!
No, wait. Soviet Russia. To each according to his need.
399: B's description of "challenging conventional opinions" is much better than my description of you getting upset over conventional opinions. That's actually what I meant. I hope I didn't offend Sybil, I really enjoyed your posts. I frequently disagree with your opinions but it's been a pleasure reading your explanations because they are so interesting and different from my perspective.
Hi Dr. Vane and Bitch.
Come here more often.
||
Vibes everyone? We've got a lawyer here a year and a half out of law school who's been working for us as a volunteer, unpaid, for the whole time because the job market is so bad. And she's really quite good, and would be an asset to any firm that hired her, but there's nothing out there.
She just got an interview with a firm I will refer to as Big Red Dog-Community Chest, and if good wishes can do any good, I'd like to solicit them on her behalf.
|>
Big Red Dog
Go Clifford!
So, you've broken my code. Damn. I thought it was fiendish.
I figured out that code and I've been delilberately trying to ignore stuff like that.
What's the Community Chest part supposed to be? Monopoly? Jennifer Love Hewitt?
So, you've broken my code
Good vibes being sent. Don't want to jinx it by stating the name outright?
422: Not offended. If I ever do start a blog, the banner text will read "Getting So Upset Over Commonly Held Opinions." And thank you for the nice words.
Bitch! And Sybil! We should start a Vane Tempest to get you to keep blogging...
422: ditto. I'm sorry if I gave the impression I don't like Sybil's writing. I do! I love the cat posts, and most everything she wrote, really. I think I was venting because I'm sad that the blog died.
Nice to see you Sybil.
The post of B's I really didn't like was the one criticizing modest women for being uncomfortable with boys in the lockerroom.
My YMCA has a separate family changing room, and there's a sign specifically saying that children are not allowed in the women's locker room, but a woman walked through with both of her kids, and I was uncomfortable.
I mean, you did say that I killed the blog. Flatly. But I appreciate that you liked the kind of sentences I killed it with.
Bg, nice to see you too. It would be funny, in a special unfogged kind of way, if this thread could turn into an everything-we-hated-about-Bphd thread.
435: It kind of would, and yet this cynical and sarcastic place is the thing I'm most attached to on the internet. I used to read bitchphd, but I rarely got in to the comments, and I didn't feel like I had a relationship with the commenters. Max said in B's thread that he felt like there were a number of deaths in his life.
Corny as it sounds, I'll be sad when unfogged breaths its last. I sort of hope that that will never happen, but I know that it must.
when unfogged breaths its last.
Not to be an ass, but this is like the tenth time I've seen that this week, so I have to make a public service announcement: "breath" is a noun. "Breathe" is a verb. HTH.
I never noticed that was parallel to 'loath' and 'loathe', which is the one that usually has me gritting my teeth.
the one that usually has me gritting my teeth
Lose/loose for me. The only ones I come across more often are to/too and its/it's.
It would be funny, in a special unfogged kind of way, if this thread could turn into an everything-we-hated-about-Bphd thread.
Nah.
I just read B's final post, and it's grand and covers the bases on why a blog folds.
lose/loose is worse. At least with 'breaths' I can pretend that it was a typo. I guess that's true of the others, though, too.
I'm starting a blog all about bedazzling. It's going to be called Crooked Timber.
435: It would be funny, in a special unfogged kind of way, if this thread could turn into an everything-we-hated-about-Bphd thread.
But I like(d) Bphd. I will say trying to keep up with the twitter sidebar really distracted from the blog.
436: Max said in B's thread that he felt like there were a number of deaths in his life.
Well, it used to be there was usenet1. And then there was IRC and Listservs. And then, 'nobody goes there anymore, it's too crowded.' And then everyone started moving to blogs. So for awhile there, blogs were the center of the action. I looked to B's blog (and others, including this one) to be the places 'where the people were'. Or at least the places where the people I'm going to care about are.
Now the center of the action seems to be twitter and/or facebook and long form writing and coherent comments seems to be on the wane, and I kind feel a loss. Status messages/tweets just aren't the same and social networking tends to be too exclusive/pyramidal for my taste. So now where do I go, eh?
Of course, the problem is, is not that blog traffic has shrunk (everyone has one! So now you can't find anything), but that non-textual internet traffic has grown to the point that everything is video and whatnot and not text. The internet is moving to the same differentiation between readers and watchers that the real world has. Now the internet is TV, so you have to find the TV show that everyone is watching and so much for discussions. That is, if you want to know what the hell's going on out there in the wide wide world of sports.
Bleh.
So it's a lot like a death in the family yes.
1 I dug around in some usenet newsgroups last night, ones I hadn't read in awhile in a few years and while regular traffic is way way down, racists, conspiracy theorists and general raving nutjobs are doing their best to make up for it. Think fifty ToS's with blogs per newsgroup.
It's clinically interesting, I suppose.
max
['TL;DR']
The self-similarity of the internet function continues to catch people by surprise. Before there was usenet (well, concurrently, but you get my point) there were BBSs, and after whatever there is now, there will be something else.
Electric scrap booking is what will happen next. The next Mark Zuckerberg is a South Dakota housewife who, probably at this very momenth, thinks Facebook makes it too hard to get the cat photo in just the right place in relation to the poem about cream of mushroom soup.
And I'm spelling shit wrong, because that's the wave of the future.
446: The Brits are way ahead of you in spelling shite wrong.
443: long form writing and coherent comments seems to be on the wane
Agreed. There are plenty of blogs out there providing decent medium-length posts, but the comments tend to be on the skimpy or downright lame side. Not a lot of intrablog community-building. It's hard not to notice.
The internet is moving to the same differentiation between readers and watchers that the real world has.
This is an interesting point, and one I haven't seen elsewhere.
I will crankily note that IMNSHO the primary drawback of the internet now is lack of editors. By that I mean both the editorial selection of what to post,* and actual, you know, editing. Of text. And the replication of old-world patterns, so that the most intriguing, original spews rarely find their way to the kind of forums that would give them wider audiences.**
*I actually kind of delight in the personal stream-of-consciousness "editing" that makes up people's Twitter streams and suchlike, insofar as it gives you a self-styled Rorschach blot of their lives, but that isn't the kind of editing that I'm talking about here.
**Last night I found some of my several-years-ago go-rounds with media in which I was attempting to convince them to publish op-eds by the likes of Radley Balko and Lindsey Beyerstein and Pam Spaulding. Total fail. Bah.
The internet is the same as it ever was, but bigger.
What's neat is that if I keep repeating this in slightly rephrased forms I'm simply proving my own point.
T h e i n t e r n e t i s t h e s a m e a s i t e v e r w a s , b u t b i g g e r .